Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Can't Stop. Must. Make. More.

The Turn-A-Square continues to occupy my thoughts as it's allowing me to both delve into the recesses of the stash for perennial workhorses like Noro while at the same time exploring new colors like my current obsession, Lamb's Pride Worsted 'Silver Streaks at Nite'. (I'm a sucker for stoopid spelling like 'nite'--guess that 'ght' is not long for this world).Way back in the early days of being an lys accolyte at the table--you know, the table where you sit and knit and knitters that know better than you tell you everything you (never) wanted to know about their medical history and dysfunctional marriages, occasionally knitting would come up and people would make solemn pronouncements like "...never knit with black. Black is impossible to knit with". Somehow I accepted statements such as this one as axiomatic truth, because the more experienced knew so much more than me. It is for this reason that when I saw 'Silver Streaks' I initially internally scoffed at the notion, because, you know, black is forbidden and all, but upon further inspection I knew that it was destined to work. And now I want nothing less than an entire sweater out of this color. In your face, knitting trolls...The SpecsPattern:Turn a Square by Jared FloodYarn: Noro Yuzen (#1), almost a full skein and Lamb's Pride Worsted 'Silver Streaks at Nite', a half a skein. The Yuzen is a new one for me, and it's a winner. Although the gauge isn't a perfect match with the Lamb's Pride, the two together worked out fine . Babs has declared Lamb's Pride to be the most undervalued yarn around, and I must say that I agree.Needles: Size 7Mods: NoneThis photo shoot is brought to you courtesy of the campus Botany Greenhouse, which was a welcome sight during today's sinister wintry mix. Its lush green foliage and thick, humid air were just what my model and I were needing to brighten our slog across campus. As you can see, I'm back to my trick of enlisting beautiful Frenchies to spice it up around here...

I have to give the TAS hat a try - yours is lovely. Black does suck for knitting in low light. Yet, considering what a staple color it is in the wardrobe of us femmes d'une certaine age, I'm sure it will be worth the extra effort ;)

Oh my god, this is the perfect entry to read right now-- I just got home from a knit night and I really got a laugh out of your description of the knitting trolls and their weirdly indiscriminate disclosures of their lives' horrors.

Did that "you can't knit with black" comment come from a let us say mature woman? Because it sounds to me like a case of "I can't see it well enough, so I don't knit with it, and if I can't knit with it, no one should!"

Love the hat. What's the fiber content of this Noro? I can't do Lamb's Pride because of the mohair, but I like how this Noro looks.

I'm not a huge Lamb's Pride fan. The mohair drives me insane! However I love love LOVE Brown Sheep's Lanaloft! Same yarn, but without the mohair. Great stitch definition. Same beautiful colors. Just love.

Okay - this post had me laughing from the very start. I love the title and I know EXACTLY what you mean about the dysfunctional-marriage and medical-history conversations at the yarn shop!

Interestingly, I heard the same thing about knitting with black way back when I learned to knit at my LYS. Leaving class that night, I stopped and picked up two skeins of black yarn and promptly began knitting with it. I figured if I could knit with black when learning, I could knit with anything.

Black is such a great classic colour, and it makes the Noro really pop. Though I will say in defense of the S&B biddies that I knit a shawl in black cobweb laceweight and that experience was definitely a non-refundable one-way ticket to macular degenerative disease.

Totally agree that Lamb's Pride is underrated. That Silver Streak at Nite is kick ass! I love black and black yarn and knit a black sweater last year. Love how you keep on cranking out those Turn a Square hats.